A. The classical usage of the term "soul"
was carried over by Swedenborg into his physiological Works.(1348)

While also used in an indeterminate sense, the common
classical and Christian usage of the term Soul (Gr. psyche, Lat. anima)
was to denote a substance or faculty which transmitted to the material
body the force of sentient and appetitive life, in contrast to the Spirit
or Mind (Gr. nous, pneuma, Lat. mens and animus,
spiritus).
The Christian fathers also spoke of the immortal
spirit as the Intellectual Soul", to distinguish it from the physical psyche.
Paul (I Cor. xv. 44) explains that there is a natural or "psychical" body
which perishes, while the spiritual or "pneumatical" body is raised from
the dead.

Swedenborg therefore at first used the term anima
or "soul" to describe a physical entity which in general meant the psyche
of the Christians and the "animal spirit" of the ancient Greeks. But as
he proceeds in his study of he relation of the spiritual and the natural,
or of the mind and the body, he gradually begins to separate the spiritual
or mental from the physical, and to recognize that the physical soul is
but the natural basis for the real soul which is the immortal spirit itself.
And finally he distinguishes the spiritual soul into its various degrees,
including in it the Animus, the Mens, and the unnamed "inmost" which alone
is the "soul" of the spirit. See page below.

B. Swedenborg arrived at his doctrine of
the Soul through a process of research, development and enlightenment.
Reference:
"Swedenborg's System of Discrete Degrees. Chart of Historical Development",
by H.L. Odhner.

Unless this process, with its inevitable changes
in the values of terms, is understood, it would appear that Swedenborg
contradicted himself radically.

1. Swedenborg's first endeavor was to outline
a system of particles and forces which would explain the gradual formation
and general constitution of the forms of nature. following the laws of
geometry and space-time mechanics. This system, after many preliminary
attempts, was published in the Principia of 1734. It describes the
origin of matter from conatus which generates points of energy out
of which all natural substances are successively formed by various modes
of motion, composition and compression, from highly active "first finites"
down to hard and passive water-particles and salts.(1349)

2. Swedenborg's second effort was to defend
and demonstrate man's immortality by stressing the existence of the Soul
as an
organic natural substance of so lofty a nature that it was not affected
by the destructive forces of lower nature. He suggested
that it was not affected by the destructive forces of lower nature.
He suggested that it was constructed out of the "first" and
"second" finites which were described in his Principia.(1350)

3. His third effort was concerned with showing that the substance of
this Soul or "spirituous fluid" was derived from the highest
atmosphere of nature, the "celestial' aura", and was not only adapted
for the beginning of motion but for the reception of life and
wisdom which proceed from the "Moral Sun" by the mediation of the Spirit
of God. Hence the intelligence and wisdom of the
Soul ware not from the "first aura" nor from the "spirituous fluid".
The form of the surviving soul was human. (1351)

4. The fourth effort was to show that, as to
their life-essence or mental qualities, souls and angels were of a Spiritual
Form, fully
human, above created nature, i.e., above the Celestial or First Natural
Form, thus above the terms by which material things can
be described. (1352)

5. His fifth effort was further to defne this
spiritual form of the Soul (as distinguished from the spirituous fluid).
The spiritual soul was "immaterial, without extension, motion, or parts";
yet it had analogues of parts. It might be good or it might be evil. He
avoided saying much about the 'human' form (shape) of the soul, since
this might give too material an idea of it.(1353)

6. His studies in the Animal Kingdom
( 1744) impress him with the doctrine of Trines, and lead to a shift in
his system of
degrees. He begins to speak of the ether of light and the ether of
magnetism as one atmosphere, and places " a supreme or
universal spiritual" above the "celestial aura" in which latter he
places only the natural essence of the Soul. (Senses)

7. He next begins to show that the spiritual
Soul
(considered now as the in most first receptive of intelligence and love
from
God) together with the Mens and the Animus, are all above
the celestial or highest natural form. (1354)

8. After this he defines the Soul as purely
spiritual and supra-celestial (above the angelic heaven); the Mens or Rational
as also of spiritual essence; while the Animus is intermediate between
spiritual and natural substances. Hence the souls of brutes
partake of both the spiritual and the natural. (1355)

9. Finally, in the Writings, it is clearly indicated
that the Soul and the Mind of man are of purely spiritual form and- substance.
Yet a "limbus" or border derived from the inmost substances of nature
is required as the basis for individual immortality and as a
medium between spirits and the human rase; this limbus is drawn from
the natural substances by means of which the natural mind was organized
in the brain. (1356) This medium cannot be seen by
the angels, nor described except by'abstractions. (1357)

10. CONCLUSION: Thus that which in the physiological
works is often called the "soul" and is described as a spirituous fluid
and as the highest of natural forms, is in the Writings distinguished
as the cutis-like envelopment of the Spirit, while the spiritual part of
man is the mind and soul which in the other life are seen in organic form,
fully human.:

II. THE "FIRST AURA" AND THE
SPIRITUOUS FLUID

The "Economy" Doctrine

A. The origin of the "spirituous Fluid" is from the first aura of
the world.

"This fluid, pure beyond all imagination" is not
generated from the food we eat, but from " the firsttaura of the world,
which has no inertia, no materiality ( so far as materiality involves inertness
and gravity)" but is force in the form of nature in her most
perfect sphere. (1358)

It is elaborated in the cortical substances of the
brain; its conception and formation must be called "eminent or transcendental"
and can be understood only by analogues or by abstractions. (1359)

B. The Natural and the Spiritual principles.
Motion and Life.

Two distinct principles determine the spirituous
fluid assumed as the soul: the one in natural by which it is enabled
to exist send be moved in the world; the other is spiritual. by
which it is enabled to five ' end be wise. (1360)

By the mediation of the auras we are only moved,
but do not live... Even the most eminent aura does not live... Hence the
spirituous fluid of most pure blood, although formed with reference
to the whole amazing faculty of the first aura of the world, still could
not possibly live as the soul of its kingdom unless life were in it from
the highest of origins. (1361)

Since this supereminent blood has acquired its form
from the first substances of the world, it can by no means be said to live.
The auras of the world do not manifest life, but force and motion.
They are not susceptible of sensation but belong to physics
which contemplate nothing abstracted from matter. It is a self-evident
truth that matter, or any part or extense of matter, cannot
think not can it feel, hear, see, taste, or smell; for all these are
properties of the soul, much less to feel, perceive, understand or
regard ends. For nature, considered in itself, is dead, and only serves
life as an instrumental cause. (1362) Life is one thing,
and nature another.(1363)

All the four auras of the Principia are mentioned
in the Economy as having physical functions in that they produce
modifications upon the human organism. There they come to participate of
the life of the soul. Thus the air causes modulations which are felt by
the soul as sonorous ideas: while the modulations of the ether are interpreted
as visual images, those of the magnetic aura as immaterial, rational, of
intellectual ideas, and those of the first aura as intuitive ideas through
which the ends of the universe can be represented. (1364)
The first aura, which is that which affects the
spirituous fluid, is that which conveys light from the sun and from the
stars and
holds together the minusest forms of the universe. (1365)
The first aura is inanimate and relapses into its
original state after each accidental mutation. But the things that are
impressed
upon the spirituous fluid inhere in it and are retained as memory.
No extrinsic natural force can change the essential
determinations of this vital fluid, however. (1366)

C. The Spirituous Fluid as a receptacle of
Life and Wisdom.

The Deity is the Sun of life and wisdom. To know
the manner of its influx is beyond the human mind. Yet this mode can be
represented by the proceeding of light from the natural sun. As the
sun of nature's world flows in by the mediation of auras, so
also the sun of life and of wisdom flows in by the mediation of the
Spirit of God. But one sun is within nature, the other is above
it. The one is physical; the other purely Moral. And the one falls
under the philosophy of the mind, while the other lies
withdrawn among the sacred mysteries of theology. In the Scriptures,
the Spirit of God is therefore often compared with a
finest aura. (1367)
This life and intelligence flow with vivifying virtue
into no other substances but those which are accommodated at one to the
beginning of motion and to the reception of life and
wisdom. How the spirituous fluid is thus adapted for the reception of life
and wisdom is beyond human thought (1368)
The Sun of life and wisdom inflows "from without"
(1369) into the "soul" or spirituous fluid without
any unition with it.
(1370) The reception of life in the soul is accompanied
with a freedom of action which only Revelation can describe. (1371)
Life, with all its variety, is received according
to the form and state of the organic substance. But in order that this
may be so,
the variety itself must be in the influx, not in the receiving
organ. (1372)

D. The Spiriustuos Fluid as the Soul of the
Body

1. It is a fluid of highest degree of purity
which supplies with moisture every living point and corner of the body.(1373)
It irrigates, nourishes, forms, renovates, actuates and modifies the body.
(1374)

2. Although, as a fluid of the "celestial" (or
perpetually vortical) it belongs to dead nature and cannot be said to live,
feel,
perceive, or understand, yet it serves the soul as an instrumental
cause and is therefore to be called the spirit and soul of itsbody, or the "spirituous fluid".(1375)
The Soul itself is its life, spirit, and determinant principle. (1376)
Its office may
therefore be said to be - to represent the universe, to regard ends,
to be conscious, and principally to determine. (1377)
it is the order, law, and truth of the lower faculties. (1378)

I don't see any medium thus far worked out
by science which could accurately be compared to the spirituous fluid.
My impression is that it would by definition be of an order higher than
that of the known electrophysical forces operating in the body, such as
the various ion exchanges. - Dr. Robert Alden

3. The spirituous fluid is called a "spirituous
essence" and a "fluid" by eminence. It generates (and flashes through)
the simplest fibrils. (1379)
It is the principal substance and vital essence
of the red blood. (1380) It is Blood "by eminence."(1381)
It is the first and pure essence, truly animal and a partaker of 1ife.
(1382)1382
Present in the seed of the father, it constructs
its body without previous science. (1383) It
is the formative substance of the body, capable of forming its own body
and to contain life and thus soul. (1384) It
is the most perfect, universal, and simple of the substances and forces
of its kingdom. (1385)
This formative substance was called by some "the
plastic force" or "the Archaeus, by others "nature in action" (Paracelsus
gave it the name 'Archaeus' in describing a semi-material-medium which
fecundated the egg.) (1386)

The veriest formative substance, however, is the
Soul
itself, and the spirituous fluid is the next in the order of substances.
(1387) This spirituous fluid is thus the
external form of the Soul, its eminently organic substance, or the organ
of the faculty called the Soul. (1388)
Its nature is therefore either "celestial" (perpetuo-vorticaI)
or spiritual-depending on aspect. (1389)
As a faculty, it is superior to the lower mentaI
organics, thus above the intellectual mind.(1390)

Note: Swedenborg's realization of the need of an a
priori source of order in the mind as in the body, here leads him to use
the term "soul" in a manner contrary to general usage.

4. The circulation of the spirituous fluid
is universal throughout the body, terminating in the blood vessels but
returning thence
into the fibres.(1391) The Soul being itself
void of extense and motion - cannot be said to have a "circulation", yet
its
determinations are along the simple fibres.(1392)

The nature of the spirituous fluid can be perceived
only through recourse to the philosophical doctrines of Forms and Degrees,
joined to Experience. (1393)

The spirituous fluid of animals differs from that
of man, and the different species have different types. (1394)
Brutes derive their formative essence from the magnetic ether. (1395)

The spirituous fluid is likened to what others have called
the "animal spirit"(1396) But it is to be distinguished
from the
"animal spirit" when this term is used to refer to the middle or "purer"
blood, i.e., to the pellucid corpuscles of
Leeuwenhoek.(1397)

E. Is the Spirituous Fluid to be considered
as Material?

Everything extended may be called material, and thus
even the first substance of the universe, which in this sense is the materia
prima. Nothing occurs in the spirituous fluid which cannot be embraced
in the term 'material'. But the more noble essence and life of the soul
is not and for that reason we cannot call the soul material in respect
to its reception of this life. (1398) Since
there is nothing of inertness or inertia in the first aura or in the spirituous
fluid, materiality (in its usual sense) cannot be ascribed to them. (1399)
That the pirituous fluid is a natural substance
is shown by the fact that it is confined within fibres. Its units cannot
be seen even
with the microscope, but a large volume of it can be seen. (1400)
Spirituous fluid cannot be contained within glass
or other vessel; hence there is no hope of preparing from it any "alcahest"
or
elixir of life, such as Paracelsus and others sought. (1401)
It is extremely volatile and is therefore tempered
by etherial elements. (1402) Nature carefully
guards against its loss.
(1403)

F. The Spirituous Fluid assumed as the Soul
of the Body, is Finite(1404)

It is an extended substance, governed by mechanical
laws.(1405) Its operations are thus also mechanical.(1406)
The soul cannot be conceived as a simple finite,
but as a composite. It is not only active, but passive.(1407)
It is not the first of all substances, but the first of its own animal
series.(1408)
"We cannot predicate degrees of perfection or imperfection
of the soul", but only of the mind, animus, and body.(1409)l409

Note: This is apparently in contradiction to 2 Econ.
315, where a superior essential mutation is admitted as possible in this
fluid, to correspond to the different ways by which life is received and
wisdom is received by different individuals. But note well that as
to its mechanical or essential action, and as to its formative powers,
the spirituous fluid is the same in all, or equally perfect in all. (1410) But note also that in his-later statements, Swedenborg
distinguishes more fully between the Soul (as to life-essence, personal
character, and mental activities) and the spirituous fluid. He then states
that motion cannot be predicated of the Soul: "The Soul is without parts
and without motion" (Action, xxvii). The Soul, as to life, is "spiritual",
"simple", devoid of parts, size, extension, figure, motion, gravity, etc.
(1411)